Archive for category slacklining, highlining and wire walking

The story I read about this slackline walk started off with a nice question about how you spent your weekend? Raking leaves? Drinking beer? “But even if you’re fearless, we guarantee whatever it was can’t come close to the insanity of Théo Sanson’s Sunday stroll—along 500 meters of ribbon-thin slack line between two ridiculously high points in Castle Valley, Utah. Yes, it’s a new world record, and no, you probably wouldn’t ever consider trying it yourself.”

Here is another video in which Theo talks about his spiritual attitude that allows him to walk on his line. He says your mind and body and spirit are closely connected, and all have to be in balance. Also that your soul is your connection to the infinite. You must contemplate to have a calm body if your mind is uneasy…and vice versa.

In this video you can also see more clearly that he is attached to the line, so that if he falls, he only hangs a few feet below the slack line. Not to take away any credit for his achievements…

I am almost speechless after watching this People Are Awesome 2013 video. There are athletic stunts and achievements here I have never even heard of, and many are clearly somewhat established “sports.” It also reminds me how nuts some people are to take these risks…like walking a tightrope between two moving trucks about to enter two different tunnels. Still can’t believe that is for real.

This is a thrilling collection of death-defying sports clips in an almost-3D mode that adds to the breath-takingness of the stunts. I can’t believe people have the courage to do some of these things. I can’t imagine how many takes it took to get these mind-boggling shots.

Philippe Petit’s movie, “Man On Wire,” receives recognition around September 11th for his incredible stunt of walking on a cable between the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center. When asked why he did it, he said “There is no ‘why.’ ” He was arrested and sentenced to a free kiddie show in Central Park. He said he just couldn’t resist climbing and walking on wires since he was a small boy. And he didn’t just walk across once…he spent 40 minutes doing knee bends, lying down, dancing and going back and forth eight times to avoid and tease the police trying to grab him.

A 46-year-old Swiss stuntman, Freddy Nock, has ascended a nearly 10,000-foot-high mountain by tightrope walking a two-inch-wide cable car wire—without the aid of any safety gear.

He clambered up the cable to the top of Bavaria’s Zugspitze mountain with only a balancing pole. It took the daredevil less than 90 minutes to make the ascent, which is the longest and highest wire-walk in history, the Daily Mail reports.

Nock has an even more daring stunt planned for later this month: He’ll ride a bike across a wire in an effort to raise funds for Unicef, reports The Telegraph.

look at those abs!

no net beneath him; no safety line attached to the cable

A 46-year-old Swiss stuntman, Freddy Nock, has ascended a nearly 10,000-foot-high mountain by tightrope walking a two-inch-wide cable car wire—without the aid of any safety gear.

He clambered up the cable to the top of Bavaria’s Zugspitze mountain with only a balancing pole. It took the daredevil less than 90 minutes to make the ascent, which is the longest and highest wire-walk in history, the Daily Mail reports.

Nock has an even more daring stunt planned for later this month: He’ll ride a bike across a wire in an effort to raise funds for Unicef, reports The Telegraph.

Here is a sport that really looks difficult, but also like lots of fun. You can try it at just a foot off of the ground, but it’s more exciting to watch someone do it much higher. Now the other question you might have is how do you attach the highline to its two ends?

Slacklining is a balance sport that uses nylon webbing tensioned between two anchor points. Slacklining is distinct from tightrope walking in that the line is not held rigidly taut (although it is still under some tension); it is instead dynamic, stretching and bouncing like a long and narrow trampoline. The line’s tension can be adjusted to suit the user and different types of dynamic webbing can be used to achieve a variety of feats. The line itself is flat, due to the nature of webbing, thus keeping the slacker’s footing from rolling as would be the case with an ordinary rope. The dynamic nature of the line allows for impressive tricks and stunts.

Highlining is slacklining at large distances above the ground or water. This second video gives some insight into how the crew sets up a slackline and does the filming. This took place at the longest highline in Europe (103 meters = 338 feet) and the height is 50 meters = 164 feet.

You can see more of these videos and others showing rock climbing at this site .